Championship outfit West Bromwich Albion missed out on Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk and Inter Milan’s Serie A star Milan Skriniar.
Speaking to the Scottish Sun back in September, former West Brom scout Stuart Miller claimed The Baggies snubbed the chance to sign a young Celtic centre-back by the name of Virgil van Dijk.
“I recommended him to Tony Pulis and said, ‘We must sign him’. I put on the report, ‘If we sign Van Dijk we’ll double our money in two years’,” he said.
“Unfortunately West Brom didn’t pursue that, which was frustrating on my part and ultimately why I left West Brom — because I was certain I was recommending a player who was top notch.”
Considering that Van Dijk is now the world’s most expensive, and arguably best, centre-back, you can see why Miller was so annoyed after the club ignored his recommendation. But the £75 million Dutchman is not the only world-class defensive talent who slipped through West Brom’s grasp.
According to The Mail in 2017, Pulis travelled to Italy to watch Sampdoria’s Serie A clash with Juventus two years ago. The Welshman, it appeared, was keen to watch Samp youngster Milan Skriniar in action.
At the age of just 22, Skriniar was starting to really catch the eye. But by the time the summer transfer window shut, he found himself at Inter Milan rather than West Bromwich.
And, almost two years on, the Slovakian international can justifiably be called one of the world’s very best defenders. TEAMtalk reported on Sunday that all of the Premier League’s top six are keen to sign him with his value rising to £30 million.
The defence has been West Brom’s Achilles heel this season. So just imagine if they could call on a partnership of Van Dijk and Skriniar.
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